I always thought cold butter was a myth for pie crust until I tried it in my own kitchen

For years, I just used room temp butter because it was easier to mix. I figured the 'keep everything cold' rule was for fancy bakeries, not my home oven. Then last fall, I made two apple pies for a party, one with my usual way and one where I froze the butter and used ice water. The difference was crazy. The cold butter crust had these perfect little flaky layers, while mine was just kind of tough and dense. It wasn't even hard to do, I just grated the frozen stick right into the flour. Now I keep a stick in the freezer just for pastry. Has anyone else had a simple trick change their whole game like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

brookes3715d ago

Is it really that big a deal?

sarah_brown15d ago

Depends, what's the "that" in this situation?